Star vs. The Forces of Nature
Chapter ?: A New Beginning
Suddenly, the girl shifted from her sleep, and Crystal froze. She pulls away and hides in the shadows just as the girl's eyes open to reveal bright blue eyes. The woman said nothing, but felt tears in her eyes as she reveled in the realization that this was her long-lost child.
The girl yawned, rubbing at her eyes with an arm and stretching the other before smacking her lips. She looks around, confused by the change in air, but then shrugs. She flips her black hair over her shoulder before standing up from bed. She adjusts the top of her pajama shirt and turns to the door when a shadow catches her attention. She blinks as she sees a humanoid shadow disappear over the window.
Now alarmed, the girl rushed to the window and looked out, bewildered. "Hello?" Her tiny voice calls out.
As she looked around for any sort of life, the intruder hides behind the trees nearby a pair of bushes where Star and Marco knelt in. They watch with small smiles as the woman began to shed tears, covering her smiling lips and silencing her sobs of joy. Behind her, her new husband was also looking at the little one with warm yellow eyes, his hand on his wife's shoulder.
The girl then pulls back into her room, deflated. She shuts the window and closes the curtains.
"… She's gorgeous…" Crystal sniffled, wiping at her eyes again.
Toffee smiled warmly and hugs her close to him. "Indeed…" He was not about to shed tears, not when his wife was needing his support.
Marco then stood up, walking over to the new couple. "Why didn't you speak to her…?" He asked, confused. Star immediately shushed him before she looked at her aunt curiously.
Crystal Butterfly didn't avert her eyes away from the window for a while. "I don't need to…" She murmurs, smiling softly to herself. "All I wanted was to know if my baby was alive and well... And if she has a good family looking out for her."
Suddenly light from a nearby window was lit. Curious, all four snuck over to peek inside and saw a man and a woman smiling brightly at the girl as they hug her. Crystal's heart clenched at seeing the girl's fright, knowing that she unintentionally scared her child. She was unsurprised to see a small tail poking just above her bottom, already knowing where she got that from. Toffee's squeeze on her shoulder confirmed that he knew as well, and that finally believed her after their time apart.
She took a closer look at the couple and was surprised to see Mewnians looking at her child with nothing but adoration and pride. The man was strong but on the shorter side while the woman was tall and very lean. The woman was whispering something to the child as she hugged her, and the man pat her shoulder comfortingly.
Suddenly the couple's eyes turned to the window and saw the four through the glass. While Toffee and the kids tensed, Crystal only smiled and nodded, mouthing, "Thank you…"
The couple just stare for a moment before smiling and nodding back to her. Then they turn their focus onto the girl and lead her somewhere in the kitchen. Crystal knew that she may never see her child again, and still she said nothing.
"… And I know they have done a wonderful job, being there for her," Crystal continues, turning to Marco with a smile. "Who am I to disrupt their happiness, when they have found it the day Moon gave them my greatest treasure?"
"Our greatest treasure," Toffee corrected gently, holding her close and tilting her head to have their eyes meet. "And now we have no more worries, my dear. Though, I do think it is about time we apologize to Moon."
Crystal tensed and looked away. Toffee frowned a bit and cups her cheek to return her attention back to him. "Crystal, I know she has done us both wrong, and in the worst way imaginable-"
"Not to mention lying to me and Star about you two, and the whole 'destroy all hybrids' fiasco-" Marco started, but yelps when Star elbows him in the gut. Star glared at him before smiling apologetically at her aunt and uncle.
Crystal and Toffee looked at them both before turning to each other. "But she has proven that she is truly sorry, about all of this. She even went so far as to find out where our little one has been. She almost gave up her life to make sure that you and her own daughter would survive. Don't you think it's time to let go…?"
"…" Crystal still said nothing, but she looked thoughtful. She brushes her arms, a nervous habit that everyone knew well enough.
"Please, Cryssie?" Star begins to hop up and down, holding her wand with both hands and giving her the best puppy face she could muster. "She's your sister! Please don't leave us! We still need you!"
Crystal chuckles a bit and adjusts her dress so she could lean down to look at her nice more squarely in the eye. "Star Butterfly, do you remember when we first met?"
"And how crazy you were about hating Mom and all that wanting revenge nonsense?" Star laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head. "And how I somehow managed to release you from your prison with my magic? And how Glossaryck was the only reason you didn't-"
"Star!" Crystal huffed, shaking her head before placing her hands on her shoulders. "I'll be more specific: do you remember the terms that your mother, Glossaryck, and I agreed to?"
Star paused and hesitated, and then she slumps her shoulders. "Yeah, you and Mom said that you would not break the family tradition passed down and that you would train me to use my magic, both with and without my wand."
"Until…?"
"…Until I am eighteen, where I will be recognized as a human on Earth; or when you believe I am fully trained with everything there is to know with the family traditions."
"Right…" Crystal nodded, still smiling. "And I did tell you that you completed everything I could teach you months ago, but I still stayed…" She pulls Star into a tight hug. "Because I love this world, and I am proud for how mature you have become."
"Me?" Star points at herself. Crystal nodded and turns to Marco. "And you too, Marco."
At their puzzled looks, she elaborated. "You have gone through so much crazy adventures together; not something common with kids your age, princess or not. And some of it is stuff that your mother and father wouldn't have approve of, either." She smirks at the flushes the kids hold.
"You've even gotten the best of me," Toffee points out, smiling sheepishly. "And your aunt on several occasions, whether we agreed with them or not."
"But," Crystal holds up a finger, looking serious. "As Blood Partners, you two still have much to learn, and you are young. You will need all the help you can get with whatever comes next, so we will stay here to support you."
"That is," Toffee looks a bit uncomfortable as he wraps an arm around his wife. "If you will let us stay."
"But what about the truce?" Star asked, looking at Crystal uncertainly. "Didn't you say you won't harm Mom as long as-"
"Star, her husband is a lawyer," Marco points at Toffee, "So maybe he can find a loophole-"
"For the last time, I am not a lawyer!" Toffee says, exasperated. The girls giggle while he rolls his eyes.
"No, Marco," Crystal shakes her head. "The laws of Earth do not apply to any truce Mewnians have. The moment Star finished her training, the truce was over." The kids' eyes widen, and Crystal sighs. "I promise I won't harm Mewni or your mother, Star. But I can't forgive Moon for what she's done… At least, not yet. It still too soon and after everything that's happened…"
"Fair enough," Star smiles, satisfied. She then envelops both her aunt and uncle-in-law in a tight hug, making them grunt. Crystal returns it easily while Toffee reluctantly wraps his arms around the girls, looking uncomfortable even as Marco joins them.
Then Star breaks it in the only way she could think of breaking it.
"Wow, all this excitement has gotten me hungry!" She breaks apart and grins at Marco. "How about some nachos?" Suddenly she pulls a pair of Dimensional Scissors out of her hidden pocket and cuts open a portal. "Last one there is a doodoo beetle!"
Marco scoffs before smiling and chases after her, calling, "It's dung beetle-"
The portal stays open, and the couple is silent. Toffee looks at his wife and sees her smiling at the house, watching the lights turn of. He brings her hand up to his lips, kissing her fingers. "You OK?"
Crystal turns to him with sparkling eyes, smiling. "I am now." She kisses his snout. "Everything is going to be OK, and you're right. I better apologize to Moon." She is about to walk through the portal, but Toffee pulls her back. She raises a brow at seeing his mischievous smile.
"Not so fast." He murmurs. "I want a kiss from my new bride."
Crystal's eyes shine and she smiles cheekily. "But I just gave you one, love."
"Silly woman," He chuckles and turns her to face him. He wraps his arms around her and tilts her chin upwards, teasing his lips against her own. His voice was low and sensual. "I want a real kiss, like this…"
His lips press gently against her own, and he cradles her head as he holds her close. Purring at the emotion behind the gesture, Crystal wraps her gloved hands around his slender neck, kissing him back with equal passion.
Their kiss lingers and they are unaware of a pair of blue eyes looking at them from her bedroom window. She was at first startled to see strangers on her front yard, but upon seeing the love in their eyes when they pull apart, she couldn't help but blush. Smiling to herself, she closes the curtains and walks back to bed, feeling warm and fuzzy at the memory.
She hoped to find true love like that one day….
Crystal hums as Toffee runs his fingers through her hair, looking mesmerized by the waves and texture. "I have a surprise for you," She suddenly murmurs, lowering her eyelids to look sultry.
"Oh?" Toffee could see where this was going, and he can't really complain. After all, it is their second wedding night… "And what might that be?"
"I wanted it to be a wedding present, but apparently nature is one for surprises…" Crystal only smiled again. Toffee just blinks, looking confused. Crystal giggles and kisses his snout before leaning close and whispering something to his ear. When she pulls away, he looks stricken. Her excitement dies down at seeing his flat look. It was his usual expression, but seeing it on news like this… It was disturbing her. "Toffee…?"
"You're sure…?" His voice was breathless, and Crystal didn't know if that was good or bad. She hesitated. "I'm two weeks along, and I checked with Angie and Star to make absolutely sure."
Toffee still didn't say anything, and Crystal was getting upset. She looks down, dejected. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea-"
Toffee's arms engulfed her tightly, and it was all Crystal could do not to gasp as Toffee began to kiss the breath literally out of her. She let out muffled yelps until Toffee knelt down and embraced her waist, nuzzling his face against her stomach. Bewildered, she only watched him as he inhales deeply.
"I am so… elated…" Toffee murmurs against her dress, and Crystal was astonished to see a tear leaking out of his eye. "I can't even express how I feel…"
She had never once see Toffee cry, not even when she threatened to destroy him if he ever manipulated her feelings again after he left, or even when he believed Moon over her on how they lost their daughter. Now seeing him let out his emotions like this… It was a side only she would ever see… And she wasn't about to take full advantage over it.
Smiling weakly, she kneels down in front of Toffee and wipes the tear from his eye. "I think I have an idea…"
"Crystal, I…" Toffee looked broken, and his voice cracked as another tear spilled from the same eye. "I'm so sorry for everything. All these years, and I have treated you so horribly… I have to know how do you still forgive me after all of this?"
Crystal said nothing as she stares at Toffee for a moment. "This is going to sound so cliché, but Star was right. 'Love is always the answer'."
Toffee couldn't help but laugh; the irony of that one statement did not miss out on him after the fortune cookie situation with Star. Crystal looks confused but shrugs it off. "But I was talking to Glossaryck about this actually, and… He said that there are some things in life that you need to let go, and that didn't mean just our daughter…" She looks at him squarely in the eye. "He was talking about my grudge against you and Moon."
Toffee was silent, and she took this moment to continue. "I guess that's just a part of growing up as well. We were young, and we sure as hell didn't know what we were doing… But the truth is, I'm tired. It's been over ten years, and it's just been hard…."
"I understand," Toffee murmurs, embracing her close to his chest. He nuzzles her hair, inhaling her sweet scent "But we will pull through this together now, yes?"
Crystal smiled, hugging him tightly and smelling his own spicy scent. "Together."
They stay embraced like that, rejoicing at the new peace brought between their species, and it's all thanks to Star Butterfly and her friends, especially Marco.
Crystal chuckles suddenly. "Those two are so good for each other…" She runs a finger up her husband's chest absentmindedly.
It took a moment for the lizard to know who she was talking about. Then Toffee huffs. "Please, those two may be Blood Partners, but they are polar opposites."
Crystal smiles. "They'll figure it out." She then stands up and holds out a hand to her husband. Toffee takes it and stands up before he pulls his wife close. She looks up at him and smiles as he whispers low in her ear. "Dance with me…"
Her response was to follow his slow movements. Despite being in a front yard, and being out in the open, all they had were eyes for each other. They slowly danced to an unheard tone, swaying against the wind as it blew one of the lilies off of the bride's hair. The lily floated off along with the gust, and one of its petals came off and disappeared in the distant night sky, twinkling with stars along with the moon that always came before and after the sun.
This was the new dawn to their lives.